Project description
In a heartbeat, tracked by cardioids
In early heart development, a complex, intricate network of transcription factors controls the development of a beating heart tube by activating regulatory elements, called heart enhancers that integrate signals from surrounding tissues. How this process is controlled is still a mystery and how mutations in heart enhancers result in cardiomyopathies remains unclear. The EU-funded 3-D Cardioid project will use cardioids and state-of-the-art heart organoids, derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. For the first time in these in vitro models, single cell genomic approaches will be applied at different stages to map human heart development and gene regulation during cardiogenesis.
Objective
The early steps of heart formation during embryogenesis require precise spatiotemporal coordination between different heart progenitors to join together to form a beating heart tube. This complex biological process is regulated through an evolutionary conserved gene regulatory network (GRN) of transcription factors and cis-regulatory elements that integrate inductive signals from surrounding tissues to ensure correct heart development. Yet, how this process is controlled during heart development, and how mutations impacting the cardiac GRN leads to cardiomyopathies, remains unclear. There is currently little or no information about human heart enhancers during these early stages of heart development. Here, we will first determine the dynamic changes in the usage of regulatory elements and gene expression that accompanies human heart development using heart organoids (cardioids) derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. To uncover the underlying GRN, we will apply scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq to 3-D cardioids at different stages of development, which will allow us to map enhancer usage during cell fate transitions in human heart development for the first time in vitro. Moreover, we will study how developmental trajectories are altered in disease-relevant mutant 3-D cardioids models. Last, we will study how perturbations of transcription factors influence enhancer function and gene expression by fine-tuning the nuclear level of key regulators using an optogenetic tool developed by the Furlong lab, which is extremely dynamic providing very precise temporal resolution, in the order of minutes. The functional impact of these perturbations will be assessed by scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq to identify the transcription factors’ regulatory mechanisms. Together, these findings will advance our understanding of gene regulation during cardiogenesis by identifying fundamental principles of enhancer usage and transcriptional changes during normal and diseased heart development.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences developmental biology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics mutation
- social sciences psychology ergonomics
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01
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69117 Heidelberg
Germany
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